The present invention relates to a modular clip for releasably securing together a pair of articles for movement as a unit and to an assembly formed of a plurality of such articles held together by such modular clips, and more particularly to a rack for supporting cans, bottles or other containers in a refrigerated cabinet or chest and taking the form of an array of trays releasably secured together by such modular clips.
The use of racks in refrigeration units--as both displays and conveyances for the containers of the products being cooled, e.g., beer cans, soda cans, etc.--is a technique well-established in the art. The racks are either configured and dimensioned to provide an angular floor to facilitate a gravity feed of the containers thereon, in turn, to a retrieval zone, or adapted to be supported with the floor in such an angular mode by an appropriately inclined shelf support in the refrigerator unit. The racks themselves have taken various physical forms and have been fabricated of different types of materials. For the most part, the racks used have been of particular predetermined dimensions and have been unalterable to accommodate different spatial dimensions imposed by the site (i.e., refrigeration unit) in which the rack is to be used.
To address this problem, racks (often called "organizers") have been constructed having frangible side and/or rear portions which may be removed to reduce the appropriate dimensions of the organizer. Once these frangible side and/or rear portions were removed from the main unit, however, they could not be reintegrated with the main unit in the event that additional space became available within the refrigeration unit.
In a different approach to the same problem, with particular emphasis on enabling a variation of the lateral dimensions of the organizer so as to enable the passage thereof through various refrigeration door widths or to accommodate limited lateral space on a refrigeration shelf, adjacent units were provided with dovetail or mortise-and-tenon joining means enabling one side of a auxiliary unit of an modular organizer unit to be secured to an adjacent side of the main unit of the organizer. This approach has not proven to be entirely satisfactory in practice since the joining means may occupy an appreciable amount of space between the container-carrying trays or channels of the organizer and thus reduces the amount of product which may be displayed in an organizer occupying a given amount of lateral space on a refrigeration shelf or the projecting tenon may snap off during use. Further, during use or cleaning, an accidental relative vertical movement between the main unit and the auxiliary unit was frequently sufficient to release the joining means and allow separation of the two units.
In view of these problems with the latter approach, recourse has been had to the use of a separate and distinct coupling element to secure the modular units of the organizer together. This too has not proven to be entirely satisfactory in practice. The coupling element is typically U-shaped with the legs extending into the channels traversed by the containers (e.g., soda cans), and the bight bridging the pair of adjacent modular units. Accordingly, if the passage of the containers down the channel did not itself dislodge the coupling element, a customer reaching into the organizer (e.g., to remove a more recently loaded one of the products than the lead one or to dislodge a product which had become stuck) might accidentally dislodge the coupling element. Attempts to overcome this accidental displaceability of the coupling element resulted in the coupling element being so tight that it could not be removed without the use of tools. Further, once the relatively small element is removed from the modular units, it tends to become lost and then not be available when needed to rejoin the modular units.
While the coupling element might effectively secure the adjacent sidewalls of two modular units together against lateral separation, it typically did not restrain relative longitudinal motion of the modular units. Where a plurality of the coupling elements were used to secure together two adjacent modular units, they were typically oriented parallel to one another and acted to restrain the modular units from relative displacement only along one axis or dimension. Thus the coupling element failed to provide a sufficiently secure tri-dimensional connection to enable two modular units secured together thereby to be moved together as a unit.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a modular clip for releasably securing together a pair of articles, such as modular organizer units, in an assembly for tri-dimensional movement as a unit.
Another object is to provide such an assembly which releasably secures the articles together against tri-dimensional movement relative to one another.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide such a clip which, even when not releasably securing a pair of articles together, cannot be lost.